


After Death

by luvr4fantanim



Series: The Blood Hunter Universe [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Fix-It, Fluff, Gen, If You Squint - Freeform, Just all the fluff, Look at me in denial, Mighty Nein as Family, Post Resurrection, What I want so desperately to happen tbh, can be considered shippy?, spoilers for episode 26
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-21 09:05:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15554322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luvr4fantanim/pseuds/luvr4fantanim
Summary: “Coming back from the dead is an ordeal. The target takes a −4 penalty to all attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks. Every time the target finishes a long rest, the penalty is reduced by 1 until it disappears.” -Snippet from the description of the Raise Dead spell.Snippets that transpire post-resurrection as Molly is recuperating from the ordeal. The Mighty Nein take turns making sure Molly rests enough before they continue on their journey.





	After Death

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to put this up as it’s own story. Mostly because it’s a lot of head cannons that I have in case Molly got resurrected and how I wanted the resting period to occur. (You have to let the body rest after Raise Dead at least because it would be severely weakened.) 
> 
> I don’t know what will happen. And, to be fair, this might never happen, but I’d like to think that it does in some universe where everything is sunshine and rainbows and there was a temple rIGHT THERE. 
> 
> This is a companion piece to my fic The Blood Hunter, which deals with a headcannon that I had about Molly having resurrection complications. But you don’t need to read that one to get this one.

Understandably, he’s bedridden for the better part of a week. Molly feels like he simply sleeps all the time at this point. Every now and again he sees the Nein come to check on him, almost as if they’re making sure he’ll still wake up.

 

He finds it endearingly annoying and constantly reminds them that he should be fine.

 

Secretly he’s grateful. He had that fear himself.

 

* * *

 

“You took my cards didn’t you?”

 

“What’s it to you? What was I supposed to take? Your  _ coat _ ?”

 

“Eh. The color doesn’t suit you.”

 

“Oh please. Who would want to wear such a gaudy thing like that?”

 

“The cards aren’t really any better.”

 

“Well I… I just resonated with them ok? It’s not like you could complain about it.”

 

“…”

 

“… I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair-“

 

“HAHAHA. Wow your face. That was priceless.”

 

“ _ What _ ?!”

 

“Oh please. Don’t act like you haven’t been walking on eggshells around me. It was so fucking unsettling!”

 

“I - What?!”

 

“…”

 

“… Oh fuck you, Molly.”

 

“Fuck you too, Beau.”

 

“Ugh.”

 

“…”

 

“…”

 

“Hey, Beau.”

 

“Yeah?"

 

“… I’ll only say this once… But thank you.”

 

“…”

 

“…"

 

“… Now you’re the one that’s giving me the fucking creeps.”

 

“Ugh. You’re right. Why did I think that was a good idea?”

 

Nott rolled her eyes from the floor where she was hearing this exchange happening as she counted the new buttons she had recently collected. She decided not to mention that, despite Beau’s complaints, she was his most frequent visitor. And that was including Yasha.

 

* * *

 

Jester was humming as she put ribbons in his hair. Molly had his eyes closed as she gently worked through his curls. 

 

Ones that, he remembered, he didn’t have in the past- 

 

He frowned and decided to open his eyes to look at Jester instead of dwelling on those thoughts. She was skinnier than he remembers her and makes a note to look for the nearest bakery in the next town they’re in.

 

“All done!” She proclaims proudly.

 

“Thank you, dear.” And he kisses her hand as she giggles, a noise he realized that missed hearing so,  _ so _ much. 

 

They sit in silence for a while. Jester was quietly arranging herself to draw on her sketchbook before pausing.  Molly looked up to see her worrying her lip.

 

“Is something wro-“

 

“Do you blame me for it?” She looked straight into his eyes as she asked. 

 

Molly paused, “Why would I ever blame you for it?”

 

“Because I wasn’t there. I should’ve been there. I should’ve prepared the components. I never should’ve gone with Fjord and Yasha simply because-“

 

“Darling, stop.”

 

He grabbed both of her hands. “I would never blame you for this. Shit happens sometimes. And sometimes you can prevent it and sometimes you can’t. Dwelling on it does not make it not happen. But you can learn from it, accept it, and move on.” 

 

He kissed both her palms. “I would do it again if I have to. If it meant that I have a chance of hearing you laugh again.”

 

Jester was crying and she cried even more when she reached over to give him a fierce hug. 

 

“I missed you  _ so _ much.” 

 

Molly chuckled, “I missed you too.” 

 

She giggled.

 

“Oh and Jester.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Can you release me? It feels as if you’re breaking my entire back with the strength of your arms.” 

 

“Oh… oops.”

 

* * *

 

Molly pretended to fiddle with his cards as he studied Fjord. The half-orc was raising his hand to play with his growing tusks before realizing what he was doing and forcing his hand down. Then he opened his mouth, before seemingly reconsidering something and closing it again.

 

He had been doing the same thing for the last half hour. But still, Molly waited. 

 

However, he had never considered himself to be patient. By what seemed to be the tenth time of Fjord hesitating, Molly put down his cards and turned to look at him. 

 

“As much as I enjoy it, I really don’t bite unless you want me to.”

 

Fjord seemed to snap out of whatever funk he had going on and looked at him in surprise, before processing his words and giving him glare. Molly gave him a full shit eating grin.

 

“It’s not-“ he sighed and then finally - finally- sat down in front of his bed. Molly looked at him expectantly.

 

“Being in stuck in that shit fuck of a situation… What they did to Yasha, to Jester, to all of us really. It was... awful, seriously.” He fiddled with his thumbs for a bit. “I never want to be stuck in a situation that made me feel that helpless again.”

 

He bit his lip, “Y’know, for a moment both Yasha and I were convinced you wouldn’t be able to find us. Jester never lost hope. And then when you  _ did _ and we learnt of the reason why it took so long… Well, to say the least, I felt like shit.”

 

“Fjord… I mean you couldn’t have-“

 

“I  _ know _ ,” he put his hand out to make Molly stop talking, "I know we couldn’t have known that you… That  _ that _ happened to you. But we shouldn’t have doubted you guys, and for that I am sorry.”

 

Fjord gave a small chuckle, but it was dry and mirthless, “You know… My first thought when I learnt about you was that I was finally going to have a room to myself. And then I did for a bit, since Yasha couldn’t sleep that night before we went to pick you up. At first I was glad to have some time to myself and then…”

 

Fjord gritted his teeth, “I realized that I couldn’t sleep because I couldn’t hear any noise. You toss and turn in your sleep sometimes. Or sometimes you take too long with your swords that I got used to hearing you take off all that jewelry you have. It was just so quiet.”

 

Molly held a breath and then put his hand on Fjord’s shoulder. “… You missed me?” A small teasing smile was playing on his lips, but he knew that his voice carried more sincerity in the question than what he originally intended.

 

Fjord rolled his eyes, “What type of stupid-“ He sighed once more before locking eyes with Molly, “Don’t do that again, y’hear?”

 

Molly smiled, “Loud and clear, captain.”

 

“Yeah, yeah.”

 

“… Does this mean that next time we room together I have to be  _ extra _ loud?”

 

“… Yeah,  _ no _ , Molly-“

 

“Because I can be. I mean, you need to  _ reassure _ yourself that I’m there-“

 

“-Yeah, you see, that wasn’t what I-“

 

“-I could always, you know, bring in somebody to feed us  _ both _ fruit like that one time-“

 

“- don’t you  _ fucking _ dare.”

 

* * *

 

“Ah shit, fuck!”

 

Molly looked up from Tusk Love to see Nott holding a thumb in her mouth, a small circle was sizzling in front of her where she had her materials to make acid.

 

“You know, do you really think that’s a good idea to do in a hotel room?”

 

“Oh, don’t tell me what to do,” She snapped, already annoyed from the fact that she burned herself, “Besides, it’s much better to do it here than on the cart.”

 

“Hmm, that’s fair.”

 

They had a beat of silence before Molly opened his mouth, “Hey Nott?”

 

“Mm?”

 

“… Why  _ didn’t _ you take anything?” 

 

Nott turned around in surprise. “… Did you  _ want _ me to take something?” She asked cautiously.

 

“Well, no, that’s not-“ Molly ruffled his hair nervously as Nott approached the foot of the bed and sat down. He sighed before continuing, “I mean… We used to fight a lot whenever we found, well, shiny things. And I have a  _ lot _ of shiny things.It’s something I’m proud of.”

 

He could feel Nott’s eyes on him, and damn her for having that powerful stare. “I mean, I wouldn’t have blamed you…” He finished sort of awkwardly. 

 

There was a beat of silence before he saw a green hand reach out and fiddle with one of his horn jewelry. He looked up and she had a distant look on her face. 

 

“Oh Molly,” she started, “You’ve always think you are smarter than what you actually are… But you seem to be always happy.”

 

A small smile played on her face as she released the horn jewelry, “And weren’t you the one that said that I should only steal from grumpy people?”

 

Molly doesn’t realize he had tears in his eyes until he has an armful of Nott and he’s pressing his face into the top of her hair.

 

She squeaked and struggled, very unused to so much contact from him.

 

“Of all the things you remember,” he said, laughing through tears, “You remember that stupid fucking phrase.”

 

Nott stopped struggling and then, gingerly and slowly, returned the hug. 

 

“Yeah, well I know that I can get  _ loads _ in better quality since yours are rather cheap.”

 

Molly chuckled and squeezed her a little bit more, causing her to start struggling again, “That’s fair.”

 

* * *

 

Molly peeked at Caleb from out of the corner of his eye. The human seemed to be very intent on reading and copying stuff to his spell book instead of actually talking. Molly usually found his occasional muttering to be quite endearing, but this was the fourth or fifth time he had read Tusk Love and he was starting to get a little bit bored. 

 

“Caleb?”

 

No answer.

 

“Ohhhh Caleb?”

 

Caleb was still muttering underneath his breath, so Molly leaned over and poked him in the cheek.

 

“Mr. Caleb?”

 

Caleb startled this time, eyes widening when he saw how close Molly had gotten to his face. “ _ Was _ ? Ah…. Is everything alright, Mollymauk? Are you feeling unwell?”

 

Molly sighed, “It’s a tragedy, Caleb.”

 

Molly refused to feel a little bit bad that Caleb actually looked genuinely worried for him, “What is it? Are you alright? Should I get, Jester?”

 

“ _ Nein _ , Mr. Caleb. For you see, I’m cursed with what appears to be the worst sickness of all time,” He gave a small dramatic flourish, “I’m bored.”

 

Caleb stared at him for a second, before exhaling a very, very long sigh. There was a small quirk of his lips that Molly was sure happened just in his imagination. 

 

“Of  _ course _ you are. You’re the one that can’t seem to sit still.”

 

Molly giggled. “Yes, yes. Well, since I can’t stand up or do any activity for shit, I thought of the perfect answer.”

 

“And what is that?” Caleb seemed to be dreading the answer, which caused a full fanged grin to appear in Molly’s face.

 

He leaned forward to give some sense of anticipation. “Read to me?”

 

“… Read?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“To you?”

 

“ _ Ja _ ,  _ ja _ .”

 

“...You do realize that I only have tomes of history and magic with me, right?” 

 

Molly rolled his eyes, “Yes, yes I’m well aware of your reading preferences-“

 

“And that some of them are actually in Zemnian-“

 

“-I’m also well aware of my lack of understanding, but I’m  _ bored _ , Caleb.”

 

Caleb seemed to pause for a second and consider it, before slumping forward in defeat. 

 

“Alright… But I don’t promise anything.”

 

Molly smiled, “It’s alright, darling. I love hearing your voice anyway.”

 

Molly was quite pleased that Caleb seemed to flush a bit at that. He enjoyed seeing the contrast of his red face with his hair. 

 

Caleb cleared his throat and he began reading. His voice, filled with the sounds of Zemnian, was actually surprisingly soothing. And Molly found himself relaxing into the bed as he listened to him. 

 

It made him think about how much he had missed hearing the soft murmurings that Caleb does every now and again. And as he felt his mind wander, he began to ponder about just how close he had been to losing all of this. To not be given a chance to listen to it one last time. It also brought some questions to his mind about what he had experience in that… state.

 

“Hey Caleb,” he interrupted with a soft voice. “Did you ever consider that I wasn’t going to be… well  _ me _ coming back?"

 

This time, Caleb wasn’t as startled when Molly interrupted his reading. He furrowed his brow at Molly’s question as he seemed to consider the answer. 

 

“… We had considered several different scenarios based on what you told us about your past… But I mean, all we had left to do was to try and hope for the best.” 

 

Molly hummed in response. “True that… You see… I did see  _ him _ . Back in that… in that place. I saw  _ him _ .”

 

Caleb stayed quiet for a bit before speaking cautiously, “And did he do… anything?”

 

“Well,” Molly began hesitantly, “Would it be hard to believe that… Maybe he had a lot more going on before… but I was still  _ me _ ? Is that… confusing?”

 

Caleb seemed to consider this for a moment, putting his finger to his lip in thought. “To be fair, Mr. Mollymauk, I don’t think I can imagine you as somebody other than yourself.”

 

Molly chuckled, “Yes, I suppose there is that.”

 

“And also, Mollymauk, from what we heard about… about before, it seemed to us that you were still, well  _ you _ .” He turned his gaze towards him in a rare moment of eye contact before once again looking at his lap. 

 

“Oh really,” Molly couldn’t avoid a small amount of panic to seep into his voice at the prospects of the group finding out a bit more about his past, “You don’t say.” 

 

And he fell quiet as he thought about all this. 

 

It couldn’t be this simple. In  _ that _ place, he was sure there was a point where he remembered everything. And he was slightly dreading that now there will be nothing to stop those floodgates from staying closed. There were still members of the Tomb Takers out there. What if they ran into something that he couldn’t avoid again? What if something else happened that he remembered something that will change him forever? What if-

 

“Mollymauk?” Caleb’s hand in his arm startled him. 

 

Ah he didn’t even realize he was digging his claws into his arm. Oops. 

 

“Ah, so sorry, darling. You can continue reading if you want.” His smile didn’t reach his eyes but he gave one anyway. 

 

Caleb stared at him for a moment, before leaning forward, and planting a small kiss on his forehead that caused Molly to look at him in surprise. 

 

“There’ll be time for that later,  _ ja _ ?” He retreated back to his stool beside the bed and opened his book. “For now just focus on getting better. I only have a small number of books to access here anyway.”

 

Molly stared at him for a bit, his hand was itching to touch the spot that he just kissed but Molly gave it his all to resist it. And then he smiled, this time it did reach his eyes. 

 

“Then don’t let me stop you, Mr. Caleb. Do carry on. Be my savior and relieve me of my boredom!”

 

Caleb rolled his eyes, “I’m no savior, but I’ll do my best, I guess.”

 

As time passed, Molly realized that it had been the most simple and effective sort of comforting he had received about the issue. And he smiled gently. 

 

Now he really had to hold true to his promise and buy Caleb his spell components.

 

* * *

 

Yasha was in there the majority of the time. Molly felt like he had his own personal bodyguard, but then again, she had always been such a steady and reassuring presence for him.

 

They played games, they talked about what the Nein did to occupy time and reminisced about the circus sometimes. Every now and again he teased her about Beau, just to see if it would prompt some sort of reaction. (So far his experiments have yielded one small quirk of the lips and a softness to her face that hadn’t been there before. Therefore he can definitely move on to teasing Beau even more about it now, he concludes.)

 

They don’t really talk about what happened, until one night that it’s raining and she’s looking out at the clouds. 

 

“… I thought I lost you, you know.”

 

Molly had paused to stare at her for a bit. “… Yes, I know.”

 

“It was really… it was a lot walking up to that grave.”

 

Molly bit his lip, but he didn’t stop her from talking, sure that she mostly just needed to get it out.

 

“I wasn’t sure what to expect. But it was a lot. I even considered leaving but-“ she took a large shaky breath, “I know that wasn’t going to be what you wanted. But I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t-“

 

For the first time in days, Molly stood up and waddled over to where she was sitting by the window. He kissed her cheek and sat down beside her, leaning his head against his shoulder. 

 

“I know, dear. I know. … I’m sorry.”

 

He heard her sniffle a little bit, and then felt a familiar pressure to the top of his head. 

 

“Just… don’t do that to me again.”

 

Molly chuckled, feeling some tears spring in his eyes as well. “We always stick together, isn’t that what we said?”

 

Yasha leaned her head on top of his. “Always.”

 

* * *

 

After a few days, Mollymauk Tealeaf wakes up one morning to find himself alone in his room. He puts one foot down, and then another. Then he stands up, with only some minor wobbling. He smiled, pleased at his progress and wobbles to the door.

 

He is starving. 

 

As he comes down the stairs, he hears the familiar noises seeping in from the dining room and is greeted with a very familiar sight. 

 

He saw Yasha silently eating her breakfast in a corner, not speaking to anybody but seemingly content to simply be there. She was silently petting Frumpkin in her lap. Jester, much to Keg’s displeasure if he could tell by her shouts, was opening and closing the windows with Thaumaturgy and was giggling nonstop at the reactions that she caused. At the same time, Nott was attempting to steal a piece of bacon from Beau, who sported what seemed to be a black eye, and was loudly trying to announce her win at a bar fight that had happened the night before. Fjord was sitting at the other edge with his head in his hands, seemingly trying to understand why he was still hanging out with this disaster troupe. 

 

Caleb was reading beside Nott, unsurprisingly, but he was the only one that glanced up and actually graced him with a small smile.

 

“ _ Hallo _ .”

 

Everybody’s faces turn to look at him in surprise and Molly smiles and gives a small bow.

 

“I’m home.” He announces proudly.


End file.
